Aiming to strengthen bilateral relations between Spain and Chile, a 23 April meeting between both countries’ foreign affairs ministries has prompted Chile to call on Spain to help it promote its seafood.
Visiting Barcelona and Madrid last week, Pablo Galilea, head of Chile’s Undersecretariat of Fisheries, Subpesca, met with the Spanish Fishing Confederation, Cepesca, to discuss the seafood promotion actions carried out by Cepesca in recent years.
Galilea cites Spain’s industry experience as a valuable example to Chilean producers, given Spain’s position as one of the world’s largest seafood consumers. Subpesca is impressed with Spain’s ongoing efforts to promote seafood consumption, highlighting the fact that its fisheries ministry campaigns between 1980 and 2008 contributed to Spain increasing its per-capita seafood consumption from 25 kilograms to 36 kilograms in the period.
Cepesca Secretary General Javier Garat explained the importance of Spanish seafood and the need to strengthen confidence among consumers. Garat stressed that although Spain has a per-capita consumption of 37 kilograms — well above the global average of 16.4 kilograms — a combination of “attacks by some non-governmental organizations against society’s confidence in the wholesomeness of seafood products, new lifestyle habits and the impact of the crisis are causing a decline in seafood consumption.”
“Our meeting with the Undersecretary of Fisheries in Chile has been successful,” Garat told SeafoodSource.
Daniel Martínez Menchón, general manager at Barcelona Central Fish Market, added: “The reason for the visit was to present our experience in promoting fish consumption. Mercasa [Spain’s wholesale food company] is going to Chile to sign a partnership agreement.”
According to the Spanish authorities, “The excellent bilateral relations between Chile and Spain result in a fluid dialogue on all levels, which is strengthened by the Strategic Partnership Plan signed in 2006. There is an opportunity to continue exploring this form of collaboration and to renew the mechanisms that allow possible joint actions to be identified in new areas in the near future.”
